Feb. 11, 2017, 6 p.m.
The End of the Beginning
Weddings are supposed to be happy occasions, but for some reason, Kurt is blue, and Blaine doesn't know why.
K - Words: 903 - Last Updated: Feb 11, 2017 632 0 0 0 Categories: Angst, AU, Romance, Tags: established relationship, hurt/comfort,
Written for the Klaine Valentines Challenge prompt day ten "Save the Last Dance for Me"
“So … what do you think?” Kurt whispers. He presses his cheek against Blaine’s, enjoying this closeness, the semi-quiet. They chose to dance alone in a dark, secluded corner instead of out on the dance floor, stealing a moment all to themselves away from the music and the lights and the people. They sway in one spot, barely larger than a step from side to side. The time for ambitious dance numbers ended over an hour ago when Sam tried to do the worm and took out two bridesmaids and a groomsman. The four of them knocked into the dessert table and almost dislodged a $3,000 eight-tiered wedding cake from its pedestal. Thankfully, the waiters managed to save it, but Sam ended up squashed at the bottom of the pile. Kurt’s still surprised he didn’t bruise anything. “Is it everything you hoped it would be?”
“I think …” Blaine raises his chin from Kurt’s shoulder and kisses him sweetly on the lips “… this wedding turned out incredible. Better than I ever imagined. All thanks to our brilliant wedding planner.”
“I am brilliant, aren’t I?” Kurt says, flipping his newly highlighted bangs.
“Yes, you are.”
Kurt chuckles, then falls silent, eyes drifting over the guests milling about the dining room. Blaine watches his husband’s subdued smile fall. The lines on his forehead and chin even out, but his face doesn’t relax. On what should be one of the greatest days of their lives, Kurt looks homesick.
“Why do you seem so sad?” Blaine asks. “Weddings are supposed to be happy, aren’t they?”
“They are,” Kurt says, a sniffle interrupting, “and I am happy. Very happy. I just … I kind of feel like this is an ending. We worked so hard to get to this point. There were times I didn’t think we’d actually arrive here.”
“True,” Blaine agrees. There were times, lots of times, when he thought he’d never see this day, confronted with obstacles that felt too high to climb, rifts too wide to cross. He would have liked things between them to be easier, but the struggles made them stronger; Blaine firmly believes that.
Besides - if, when he and Kurt first met on the staircase at Dalton, Blaine knew things would be difficult between them, he still would have taken Kurt’s hand. Still would have led him down that hallway. Still would have switched schools to be with him, still would have wanted Kurt to be his first.
He still would have asked Kurt to marry him years later … twice.
“And now, it feels like something’s over,” Kurt continues. “Something that we won’t get back. All those firsts aren’t firsts anymore. They’re behind us, long gone.”
“Oh, Kurt.” Blaine lifts a hand to his husband’s face and brushes away the start of a tear. “There will be other firsts. This isn’t the end of anything. It’s another wonderful, new beginning. There’s so much ahead of us now.”
“Y-you promise?” Kurt asks, his voice starting to shake.
“Of course, I do,” Blaine says, hugging Kurt tight in his arms.
“Alright, alright, alright,” the DJ cuts in before the song ends. “Everyone gather ‘round the floor as we watch our newlyweds’ dance to one last song before they head off on their honeymoon.”
The DJ howls. The guests (the more drunk ones, Blaine suspects) whistle and hoot. Kurt sighs, too blue to roll his eyes, or glare at the obnoxious way the DJ made that announcement.
“I guess it’s time, huh?” Kurt says.
“I guess it is,” Blaine agrees, leading his husband to the dance floor. “Hey …” He stops for a second even though there are eager eyes around, watching them impatiently “… it’s going to be all right. I swear. No matter what, as long as we have each other.”
Kurt smiles - slight, but sentimental. “As long as we have each other.”
They reach the edge of the dance floor and stop. Around them, a mass of people form a circle - Kurt’s and Blaine’s friends from high school, college, and work, as well as Tracy’s and her husband’s. Their little girl – not so little anymore – glides onto the floor accompanied by her husband. They’ve already changed out of their wedding clothes and into traveling outfits. All they have left to do is dance to the final song.
After that, they’ll go off on their honeymoon and start their new life together.
While Kurt and Blaine return home to an empty nest and try to remember what it’s like to live alone with one another again.
Michael Buble’s silvery voice fills the air as husband and wife take one another in their arms. They laugh and smile, and never take their eyes off one another.
It reminds Kurt of his and Blaine’s last dance at their own wedding, and his breath stops in his throat.
“She’s so beautiful,” he says, the words fighting their way past the tightness in his chest.
“Yes, she is,” Blaine says.
“Do you think she’ll be happy?” Kurt winds an arm around his husband’s back and rests his head against Blaine’s, temple to temple.
Blaine lifts his husband’s hand to his mouth. The wedding band on Kurt’s finger - worn through thirty years of dancing, hand holding, fighting, love making, and caring for their only daughter - smooth against his lower lip. “I know she will.”